Vietnamese law clearly states that to ride a motorcycle of 50cc or greater. You must have a license to ride a motorbike in Vietnam. You can obtain one only if you have a visa that allows a stay of longer than 30 days …
Indeed, Vietnamese driving licenses are mandatory for riders of motorcycles with a capacity of over 50cc. You need A1 license for under 175cc or A2 for over 175cc. And the fact is that appropriate Vietnamese Driving Licenses are also compulsory condition to possess a 3rd party insurance to cover fully on the tour. Sadly, it’s impossible to have a Vietnamese motorbike license if you travel on a tourist visa. You need a business visa, a work permit and/or a residence card. In fact, this also applies to register motorbike(s) in Vietnam.
So can we ride motorbikes in Vietnam with our own local licenses?
The answer is impossible too but luckily Vietnam officially accepts International’s Driver Licenses. And you can apply/convert such IDP easily online at (https://www.e-ita.org/vietnam). They also abide by the 1968 Convention. The application process is 100% online and takes about 3 minutes including uploading a headshot. Otherwise, we can help you convert this at the cost of US$ 130/person.
In conclusion, you can forget thinking of how to get Vietnamese licenses or convert into IDP. If your budget is tight because the fact is that roughly 99% of foreigners are riding motorbikes in Vietnam without appropriate licenses. Due to the complicated legal procedures and the traffic police in Vietnam rarely stop foreigners to check the paper-works due to the language barrier except for the case that you make accidents or serious crashes. And even if the police stop, let our guide deal with police & victims personally then you can compensate for what you made and this is the easiest & simple way for such issues on tour.
To get more details on many other Vietnam Motorbike Tours to the North of Vietnam, you can visit at Northern Vietnam Motorcycle Tours
and Northwest Vietnam Motorbike Tours
Of course, you can also follow us at this following youtube channel to see what we’re doing for our guests:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGBgX1PdmW3wLZe68OMfb3Q
Myself & 3 others hired motorcycles in Ho Chi Minh & rode up the coast. We got stopped by corrupt cops who took our passports & were made to follow them back to a compound where we were ordered to pay a “fine” (bribe) or they threatened to impound our bikes for 7 days. It started out at $5mil Dong each but we got it down to $1mil each after about an hour’s worth of trying to understand each other. That was the only issue we had on our 7 day ride. Just be wary of tourist buses & big… Read more »